UK campaigners join Amazon battle

An international tribal rights group is calling on the Brazilian government to take a stand against corrupt local politicians and Western businesses following the kidnap of three Catholic missionaries who supported indigenous Indians in the northern Amazon.

Survival got involved after Brother Joao Carlos Martinez from Spain, Father Cesar Avellaneda from Colombia and Father Ronildo Franca from Brazil, missionaries on the Raposa Serra do Sol indigenous reserve, were released on 12 January following three days in captivity.

All three had been campaigning for the removal of 7,000 settlers – rice cultivators, farmers and cattle ranchers – working in collusion with local politicians. They were taken hostage when a mob of 200 non-Indian settlers invaded their mission and ransacked a hospital and school catering for the Indian population.

Fiona Watson, Survival campaigns coordinator, said: “The Catholic Church is perceived by the local politicians and rice cultivators as being very active when it comes to the rights of indigenous peoples and they want to stop this.

-Indigenous groups are seen as obstacles to progress – the only areas left with forest cover are those belonging to them.”

And although Brazilian environment minister Marina Silva is pro-indigenous, she is fighting against a rising tide of big business; US food giant Cargill is currently involved in clear-cutting forest for the rapidly growing expansion of the GM soya crop.

Survival is also disappointed with Brazilian president Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva. “At the beginning of his presidency a year ago he talked of indigenous land rights but in terms of delivery nothing has been done,” said Watson.

The pan-indigenous people’s organisation COAIB, who Lula is due to meet early this year, burnt Lula’s manifesto last November.

A spokesman for the Indigenous Council of Roraima said: “Ratification of Raposa Serra do Sol is the barometer measuring the attitude of the Lula government. If it acts now, Indians throughout Brazil will take this as a sign of the government’s commitment to upholding their rights.”

In December Brazil’s minister of justice announced that Lula would ratify the area as a reserve. Although the 3.95 million acres territory has been mapped and demarcated, it still needs that presidential signature promised since 1998.

Dipesh Pandya speaks to documentary film-maker Sanjay Kak, who for 30 years has been working outside the mainstream to tell a story rooted in the struggles of those excluded by India’s militarism and its narrative of neoliberal growth

Working class theatre: Save Our Steel takes the stageA new play inspired by Port Talbot’s ‘Save Our Steel’ campaign asks questions about the working class leaders of today. Adam Johannes talks to co-director Rhiannon White about the project, the people and the politics behind it

The dawn of commons politicsAs supporters of the new 'commons politics' win office in a variety of European cities, Stacco Troncoso and Ann Marie Utratel chart where this movement came from – and where it may be going

A very social economistHilary Wainwright says the ideas of Robin Murray, who died in June, offer a practical alternative to neoliberalism

Fearless Cities: the new urban movementsA wave of new municipalist movements has been experimenting with how to take – and transform – power in cities large and small. Bertie Russell and Oscar Reyes report on the growing success of radical urban politics around the world

Red Pepper is

the magazine at the heart of the movement – spicing up the left for over 20 years.Read more...

In the latest issue

The World Transformed special issue: For the many, by the many ● Acid Corbynism ● Capitalism and mental health ● The real India on film ● and more